Neo Geo CD First Impressions

Joined Sep 2007
53 Posts | 0+
San Antonio, TX
I just got my Neo CD package today, and I am currently in the depths of a gaming binge. In the interests of kick-starting the conversation here, I thought I would list my impressions. Feel free to agree, disagree, comment, or whatnot!


King of Fighters '95: I started with this title, and I wish I hadn't. In my opinion, the load times are painful. Because of the loading between rounds, and the fact that rounds are generally over in 30 seconds or less, this actually resulted in me waiting more than I was playing. The cool character portraits between rounds couldn't save me from quickly picking something else up.

Samurai Shodown II: This was my first game on cart, so I was prepared to be disappointed. Was I ever pleasantly surprised! I loved the rearranged music, the load times are EXTREMELY reasonable, and I only detected missing frames in Earthquake's standing animation, which may or may not be my eyes deceiving me. An A++++ title!

Aggressors of Dark Kombat: Unorthodox 2D fighters like this are my bread-and-butter. Very reasonable load times, unique gameplay. I plan on spending more time with this one.

World Heroes 2 Jet: Another one of my favorites. This is a clear example of loading done right. One load before you fight all 3 characters, and then it's uninterrupted game time. My only gripe is that the remixed soundtrack actually doesn't sound as good as the cart in some cases, IMO. Minor gripe, though.

Samurai Shodown: What?! The classic intro, complete with falling cherry blossoms and slashed lamps is missing? Heresy! On the gameplay front, perfect. The remixed soundtrack is very nice. Loading times are painless.

Samurai Shodown III: I see why CD owners always talk about this game. Phenomenal in every respect. 2 was always my favorite; this may give it some competition!

Metal Slug 2: As an owner of the MVS version, I will tell you all that the CD version is incredible. The loading is quick, and I actually prefer the fact that it is spaced throughout the levels. Combat School and the art gallery provide enough CD-specific perks to make this my favorite version.

Savage Reign: Why have I never heard anyone say something positive about this one? The character designs are entertaining, the gameplay is solid, and it has the most unique 'now loading' screens I've witnessed yet: each of the game's cast tell you jokes while you wait! I have seen more than one for each character, I am interested in seeing how many there are.

. . .and that is where I stand now. I have 20 games left to try. I will add impressions as I go!
 
Glad you are having a good time.
I got used to the load times, I guess. After playing Last Blade, KOF 95 is nothing. :lol I spend more time with KOF 97. I have 95, 96, and 97. I think 96 is better than 95.

Really Samurai Shodown II has become my favorite, I have all four. Two seems to have more character about it than the others. Especially like the mumbling that the fighters do. I was a little dissapointed in three because it does not have the fighter that I like to use, "Jubei."

Yes, I like Aggressors of Dark Kombat too. Very odd fighter, but good.

World Heroes 2 Jet: My first time playing a World Heroes game was at a K-Mart. They had the arcade standup at the entrance. I played it only once. The next time I played was on a home console it was either a Genesis or a SNES, and I did not like it. Playing this game on the Neo Geo CD, I like it. I love the feel of the game.

I have not been able to grab up a Metal Slug game yet, but I want one. Love the games. Glad to hear that it rocks on the NGCD.

Glad to here something good about Savage Reign. I have been curious but overly cautious. Might look into getting it now.

I am going to be off from work this coming week and I'm hoping to put in some time gaming. Yard work and my job have kept me busy the past few weeks.

Looking forward to more of your impressions.
 
Retro,
- Having had the chance to play a few other KOF's, I still think that 95 is a little excessive with loading. But, it's not my favorite either, so no big deal.

- I agree with you about SamSho II. That incredible SNK/Japanese flavor permeates every pixel!

- Oh, and my first time playing World Heroes 2 was at a local Wal Mart, so I can definitely relate! I had to make do with the Genesis port when I was a youngun in the 90's. :lol

I've made some more progress, so here goes a few more.

Sonic Wings 2: A solid little shooter! The fiance and I tore into this one and had a great time. Negligible loading, nice graphics. If weird 2D fighters are the bread and butter, then vertical shooters are the jam at the Chemist household.

Sengoku 2: I had never played the sequel prior to now. It is a very solid beat-em-up with good loading. There is a slight lag when you are transported to the 'spirit world', but nothing too obnoxious. I can't decide whether I like this or the original better.

Fatal Fury Special: What is there to say? I own this on every format it was released on, including Sega Game Gear and Turbo Duo. My favorite fighter shines on the Neo CD with little loading and awesome tunes. Tung's BGM makes me want to move to a hermitage in the Himalayas.

Fatal Fury 3: Fatal Fury is my favorite franchise, so I might be a little biased, but I love this one. I thought the loading was reasonable. The music is top-notch, and the graphics are awesome. I love the storm on the horizon at Howard Arena.

Crossed Swords: Pretty interesting little title. It is a first-gen title, so of course loading is painless. I need a language switch mod to understand the dialogue.

KOF '94: This is what 95 could have been! One load before a match, then unobstructed gaming goodness until the next match. The AI isn't as bloodthirsty on CD, which I appreciate. Rugal is still a nightmare, though.

KOF 98: My favorite KOF, with lots of extras just for the CD! Loading takes a while (30+ sec) for the first round of each match, but after that it is speedy. Which yet again made me ask myself what the heck happened with 95. A must-have, IMO.

Double Dragon: I'm a fan of the beat-em-up series, so I enjoyed this one. Another case of efficient load times, cool gameplay, and characters that already have a place in my gaming heart. Abobo should have looked WAY more like his freakish mutant incarnation in DD1, though. . .

Art of Fighting 2: How did they manage this? With the giant sprites in this game, I expected this version to be missing some frames/shrunken sprites/etc. The fact that it seems more or less intact with minuscule loading times to boot is astounding to me. Oh, and the music is godly.

. . that is where I am for now. Got about a dozen more to go; I just received Real Bout Special and Last Blade 2 in the mail today. I am anticipating getting VERY used to looking at loading screens!
 
Sonic Wings 2: I have been playing that today. I die too many times, but great fun, gave it up on stage 10. I am a solid SHMUP fan, so this, Last Resort, and View Point fill the need on my NGCD. I was playing Last Resort today too.

Sengoku 2: I like and enjoy this game. I have never played the first one. So what are the differences? Any Pros and cons?

Fatal Fury Special: This one came with my player. I was reluctant at first to try it. I really did not like it on the SNES. Playing the original game on original hardware was like night and day! And the music is awesome. It caused me to get Real Bout Fatal Fury Special. Another great one for the NGCD. I also ended up geting Real Bout and Real Bout 3, two more good fighters.

I don't have KOF 98, but I want it real bad. :lol I had to put KOF 95 in last night after reading what you said about it. I got whipped sort-of fast because I noticed some animation in the background that I had not noticed before, windmills turning. That is the one thing that I love about the Neo Geo games, they have so much life in them.

Double Dragon: This is another one that I want bad. This is the one that has that stage where you are fighting on an airplane right? I like that stage.

Art of Fighting 2:
I agree, that is an amazing translation from cart to CD.

Last Blade 2!!!! Would love to have Last Blade 2!!! I like using "Akari." She causes me to chuckle and laugh. I have discovered moves accidently, that I did not know she could do. It will be interesting to hear about your experience with the load times. :) I got to go play Last Blade right now.

Keep those impressions coming. :)
 
It has been 3 days of unadulterated bliss, but I finally tried all of my games. Here go the last few impressions.

Viewpoint: I am in love. I particularly love the 90's techno soundtrack. It is harder than balls; I foresee spending much time with this one in the future, if only to get past freaking level one. :lol

Last Resort: I saw this on the first MVS cab I ever found when I was a wee lad. It has a special place; it shines on the CD. Is the soundtrack remixed? I think so, but I had trouble judging. Either way, I would never give this title less than a 10.

Joy Joy Kid: A more difficult Tetris, with animals and children. The blocks are poorly defined, so it is hard to tell if I have placed a block in the proper space. Rather annoying. Loading is astoundingly long, to be the smallest game (26 megs) made for the Neo. Give me Bust A Move any day over this.

World Heroes: I never really liked the first World Heroes. I always felt that the series didn't truly hit its stride until Jet. With the benefit of a much better soundtrack (I hated the cart music), I like WH CD a lot better. It is the best loading fighting game I have played yet. Good for some quick, shallow fighting fun, but it still controls like molasses.

Burning Fight: I have always defended this Final Fight clone against detractors. It is a lot of fun with 2 players. Loading is no problem.

The Super Spy: This is one of those originals I never got a chance to play or own. It is fun, if a bit repetitive.

Raguy: A cutesy 2D platformer? The Neo truly has something for everybody. I am waiting until a day my lady wants to play through this one with me; she loves these kinds of titles.

Riding Hero: I'm not a big fan of 2D motorcycle games. To its credit, it has quick loading, and a Story Mode in which you play a racer and go around town building up your motorcycle. As soon as I can get it to display in English, I will spend some time with it.

Baseball Stars 2: This is a great CD port. Almost no loading; lots of fun. I'm not a fan of sports games, but I can get into this one, if I'm in the right mood.

Real Bout: 2D fighting heaven. I love it! Easily in my top 5. Load times aren't too big a problem, and once you're there. . WOW!

Last Blade 2: As I have played CD after CD, loading just doesn't faze me as much. That, and playing one round of this is an amazing adventure! Of course, the loading IS time-consuming, but I honestly think that it has been embellished. LB2 has so many CD-specific extras, including a Quiz mode. Incredible.

The ONLY thing that annoyed me was the fact that it takes considerable time to load your opponent's pre-fight taunt. It is kind of a tease; you get to see your characters, hear the background music, and then it is back to loading for another 30-40 seconds. It unseats the annoying lag right before your opponent hits the ground at the KOF 94 win quote screen for 'Most Annoying Inopportune Load Time'.

. . .don't let that fool you into thinking that I don't love LB2. It is sublime.

Retro:

- seriously, Viewpoint, SW2, and Last Resort make the CD worth owning on their own. The fact that there are even more out there worth playing excites me.

- Sengoku 1? The biggest differences are that your character isn't always carrying a sword; you collect a LOT more power up orbs in that one, which give you different swords, projectiles, etc. You are SO outclassed if you are fighting samurai with your fists; I think that is what made the programmers decide to make swords mandatory in the 2nd. You also earn the ability to morph into the various forms as you go in the first one.

I have to admit, a few of the stages feel more EPIC in Sengoku 1. My favorite boss fight takes place on a stage made of the backs of a herd of stallions. If you like the second one, you really owe it to yourself to pick up the first.
Humorous aside: the neon cowboy 2P looks even MORE, um. . .questionable in the first one. You might have thought that wasn't possible, given the purple cowboy hat and knee pads. :lol

- So, what did you think when you drug out KOF 95? That was my first cd I played, so I may have become more used to the loads by now. I will probably try it out again a little later.
 
In pulling out KOF 95, great time. You do get used to the load times. When playing the other games you just notice that slight lag. When playing LB 1 today the load times just wasn't as painful as the first few times. I also pulled out 96 and rediscovered why I like it soooooo much, simply put, Mature and Vice. I wished they were in 97. I like the KOF series and would like to own all of the ones for the CD.

Samurai Shodown: You said something about missing intro. I had to load that up today, because I remember seeing it on there. Yep, its there alright. You have to play the Demo game and it is there!
The Samurai Shodown series is one series that took me by surprise. I had never played one of the games before and now have ended up with 1 through 4 and 2 being my favorite.

Last Resort: I could spend my whole time on the NGCD playing this game alone. I like it that much.

Viewpoint:
I've made it as far as through to the end of level 2 and then I am blown away continuously! :lol
 
You are right! I actually didn't realize you could view the old arcade attract demos when I first wrote that. Sorry! 8)

It looks like I will have to retract something else, too; I have spent this stormy afternoon with Joy Joy Kid/Puzzled. It is deceptively similar to Tetris, in that all the blocks are shaped the same. Attempt to play it like Tetris, however, and you will be duly humbled. It is difficult as can be, and the AI is downright malicious. ("You didn't put that block where you were supposed to?! Then have 9 squares, mother!!!!!!")
 
I have spent the days since my last post moving into a new residence, doing research, and making time for just a little bit of gameplaying.

For the benefit of all who may venture here later and read these posts, I feel compelled to go back over KOF 95.

After spending considerable time with several of my games, I do feel like KOF 95's loading times rival that of other fighting games crafted around 1995. I would say that my gripes with the game are intrinsic to KOF 95 itself. Rounds do tend to last close to the same amount of time as the between-round loads, and this is because of the relatively high damage ratio in KOF 95, when juxtaposed with other contemporary fighting games(bar Samurai 3). Considering all rounds but the first generally begin with one fighter below max life, this can get frustrating, especially when the godly music of several of the stages is started over at the next round, JUST after it was about to reach its crescendo!

. . . Also, would it have been THAT difficult to allow for a one-load match if the player opts out of Team Edit? KOF 95 is not much more taxing of the hardware than 94; it seems like it wouldn't have been such a monumental leap.

The saving grace of KOF 95, in my opinion? Single Play mode. A single load before matches and the BGM isn't restarted between rounds. It is much more enjoyable to me that way.

I have spent considerable time with heavyweights like Samurai 3, Last Blade 2, and KOF 98, so I feel like I have had enough experience with higher load games to state this with confidence. Looking forward to picking up 96 and 97 and comparing them later on.

Happy gaming until next time!
 
I received a package of 3 new CD's today. All of them are older, non-fighting games, mainly because I wanted a break from fighters for a little while.

Windjammers/Flying Power Disk: This is one of my favorite Neo titles on the cart systems, so you can guess where this is going to go. Minuscule loading times, touched-up sound, and hyper-frisbee, er, flying disk, action!! Where could this game go wrong? I would also like to mention that this is the ultimate party game. I have had so many friends make fun of how simple it looks, and then they are hooked once they try it. It is impossible to resist Windjammers.

League Bowling: More good, mindless fun! This title has the second quickest loading times I have ever seen (after Puzzled), and aside from that it is arcade-exact. Also a good party game. Not so much fun one-player, though.

Thrash Rally: I had never had the chance to play this one before now. I am amazed that this is a first gen Neo title. The attention to detail in the game is amazing; birds fly overhead in England, herds of reindeer run by in Finland, and it is an action-packed little racing game. I never really knew how to feel about top-down racing games, but I am sold on this one. I just need to get a little bit better at it.
 
If you want a replacement in terms of a fast-twitch action game, then either of the Metal Slugs, or Nam 1975. If you want a "top-down shooter", then Ninja Commando.

There are likely more, but those are the ones that I know from experience.
 
Better? I think that's a matter of opinion. I personally am not a huge fan of Shock Troopers. Ninja Commando is a lot of fun, though.

On another note, I got World Heroes 2 and World Heroes Perfect in the mail today, completing my WH collection on CD. Impressions on those to come at another time when I am not putting off going to bed.
 
World Heroes 2: After experiencing the painless one-time load and awesome remixed soundtrack of WH1 on CD, my expectations were slightly high with this one. The game does load between matches, but it is quick, as in <=10 seconds, and you view an animated portrait of the character you are about to fight. World Heroes 2 never really had a memorable soundtrack, IMO, and the remix does not seem to help. The only theme that really stood out to me was Fuuma's. Unless you are a fan of the series, I recommend bypassing this CD and going straight to Jet or Perfect. Also, Dio is STILL capillary-burstingly hard!!

World Heroes Perfect: Simply put, incredible. The gameplay in this installment is top-notch, and the CD captures it perfectly. The remixed soundtrack is excellent, and the inclusion of a 'CD Mode' gives you a playable Son Gokuu and Neo Dio. Altogether, I would recommend the CD version over the cart, and this title is somewhere in my top 5. The load times are surprisingly short, actually about the same as WH2's. If you are not a WH fan, go directly to this installment; you may be converted.
 
Sorry I missed your posts.

My favorite soundtrack? That's tough. . .probably either Samurai Shodown, Last Resort, or Fatal Fury 3. All of those soundtracks are in constant rotation on my iPod.

I have only listed impressions of the games I own. I don't have KOF 99 yet.
 
The entire Samurai Shodown series has a killer sound track... love it.

KOF 99 ... good. KOF 97, I like better.

WInd Jammers has a suprisingly good sound track IMO.

†B†V† :hat
 
Wow some life in the NGcd section. :lol Have no idea how I missed this.

I agree with the Samurai series. I really like the Last Resort music and would also add Last Blade in there. I was playing through Real Bout Special this morning and thought that there was a few music tracks that were very rememberable, for me, which are Jin's stage, Germany, and Spain.

I caught myself today comparing the time it took before you could actually play between the games Real Bout Special and Last Blade. Last Blade took longer.
 
I only recieved my Neo Geo CD system last week, so I am generally new to the system itself, although I have been playing on Dreamcast through emulation w/ NEO4ALL and custom cue sheeted iso files (of which I have all purchased on the cd format if I cared for them...not like anyone loses money, but I wont possess any burnt software unless I acquire the physical game) , the hardware itself is all new

My impressions are as follows

1 - hardware ) I never thought I would see a system that made my PS3 look small, but the Neo Geo CD is monsterous compared to all the other systems it shares a shelf with. Build quality wise I love the color and contour, yet completely distrust the top loading lid. Mine is in perfect shape (purchased from play asia) yet I still treat it w/ kid gloves.

2 - controllers ) I am using the cd pads, which may be considered a mortal sin in the world of Neo Geo , but considering the fact that I generally game while sitting in a chair, a joystick never seems to fit on my lap comfortably. As far as the pad is concerned, its one of the more comfortable ones I have held. Everything has a nice click to it, and other than the difficulty of hitting B+C / A+D during fighting games, Ive grown to quite like it. Cord wise its way too short. Were talking Dreamcast short, except I cant get any extention cords (or can I...anyone know?)

3 - packaging ) Atrocious! I would have never given it the time of day back when it was on the shelves. (and clearly I didnt, since its 09 and I just took the jump) Just commenting since my unit came w/ a full box and instructions (japanese unit)

4 - games ) Here is the 1 and only reason I purchased the console itself....difficulty! After playing far too many current gen games, I was just dying for an actual challenge. I always had a fascination for systems I never had growing up, and now that I can pick up what I always wanted, I started my collection. (PS3 / 360 / Wii / 3DO / NGCD)

Having played many of these games growing up (I can still pick out the Puzzle Bobble theme song after the first few notes) I wanted to finally sit down and be able to beat a game without financing the arcade with my hard earned quarters! I love the fact that a game with only a handful of stages (Pulstar) can take me longer to beat than something like Bioshock. I can sit down, memorize patterns, work high scores, and get some solid playtime into games that really defined why I enjoy gaming so much in the first place

and finally...

5 - the gf factor) My girlfriend will actually play these games with me! They arent too complex, have few buttons, and can be fun yet challenging. Other than the Mario games I bought her on the VC for Wii, this gets her to sit down and session some solid Puzzle Bobble with me

So yeah...so far so good w/ the NGCD!